I am sorry that people are losing jobs, but happy to see 300 more eyesores close. The management of that company will drive them into the ground. If I go to a coffee shop, it is a locally owned and operated one. I would rather support my neighbors than some giant corporation.

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Charbucks and their burned coffee empire are fading away! Yay! $4 for a cup of coffee??? What the hell is up with that?

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"Last summer, Starbucks announced that they were closing..."

Subject/pronoun disagreement alert!

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If you don't like their coffee, fine, don't drink it. But a corporation like Starbucks closing stores and cutting nearly 7,000 jobs is bad for the employees and their families, bad for the economy and ultimately, bad even for the holier-than-thou I-only-buy-local earth elitists.

I bet some of your neighbors DO work at Starbucks.

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I do feel bad for the people who lost their jobs as I said, but the people that work in and own my local coffee shop live in my neighborhood, why not support them? I am not some buy local elitist I just like to support my neighborhood business since if they benefit, I benefit with no tax increses, etc...

The problem with Starbucks is that there are simply too many of them, their greedy management is to blame, not the economy.

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And what should I do when my local shop *is* a Starbucks? I know, I know, support the independents, but frankly, where I live (Seattle) the shop across the street from my house has been nothing but rude, while at every Starbucks the baristas are nice, the coffee is predictable, and the prices are the same as the "local" shops. I even ran into my favorite barista at a party once. Never going to happen with the snobs across the street.

Long, I know, but I just want to say that without Starbucks a lot of kids I know couldn't afford to go to college, and what coffee you like is a case of personal taste. I dunno, but Starbucks bashing sometimes seems like the same thing are people who stop liking a band because it's become popular.

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*sigh* I am so sick of people complaining about Starbucks and their "$4 coffee".

First of all, the ACTUAL DRIP COFFEE is less than $2 for a large (20 oz). The $4 drinks are large lattes with special syrups or extra shots, or those glorified milkshakes, Frappuccinos. And that kind of pricing is NOT exclusive to Starbucks if you consider similar products at other chains. Stop the ignorance, please. If you don't want to spend $4, get a drip coffee or brew it yourself.

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The price of the coffee is really of no concern to me, it is just that I am sick of seeing a Starbucks every few miles, no wonder they have to close stores to keep things going. There are just too damn many of them. They remind me of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, they opened too many stores and almost went out of business, Starbucks seems to be getting themselves into the same trouble.

I will stick to brewing my own, or going to the guy down the street whose coffee is just as good as Starbucks.

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A cup of coffee at Starbucks does not cost $4. That's a lie.

That said, they've made some very poor decisions as a company over the past year, such as eliminating all choice of brewed coffees and just offering one mediocre blend all day long... and eliminating decaf coffee after noon.

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Yes, please get off of the "four dollar coffee" at Starbucks thing. I don't know where that started. And also, as others have said, the "local" places cost just as much or more. And, who's to say that going to a local place actually helps the local economy anyway. I don't think there is necessarily any evidence of that. It might help that one local business owner. S/he might be a jackass who never donates to charity and pays their employees minimum wage with no benefits...Starbucks baristas get some benefits at least. But some people believe that just because it is local, it must be better to "support" it. Idiots. As for their closing stores, they are only one of many companies having to close stores in this economy.

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